


Sometimes we forget

by ozuttly



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Depression, Kiriya isn't used to being a person anymore but Hiiro and Emu try to help, M/M, Medication, Poor Coping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 12:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18716785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozuttly/pseuds/ozuttly
Summary: In which Kiriya isn't really doing as well as he'd hoped with his newfound humanity and his boyfriends want to do their best to help him out.





	Sometimes we forget

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mara/gifts).



Sometimes, Kiriya forgets that he’s a human being. It made sense, really, after spending almost a year as a bugster. Living without the biological imperatives of eating and sleeping meant that it was easy for him to forget to do them. 

Emu is the first one to notice it, when he first starts skipping meals. He starts carrying around granola bars in the pockets of his doctor’s coat, and he offers one to Kiriya whenever he realizes that he hasn’t seen him in the cafeteria that day. Kiriya is grateful for the care, if a little embarrassed that he actually needs it. He’s an adult, and he should be able to handle these things on his own by now. Emu doesn’t seem to mind, though. Instead he just smiles when Kiriya jokingly brings it up, and says, ‘what are boyfriends for?’. 

They’re for more important things than being a granola bar dispenser, Kiriya thinks bitterly to himself, but he always takes the food anyways. 

Hiiro is the one who finds out that he’s been pulling all nighters. He lectures him, rather thoroughly, about the importance of getting proper sleep. Kiriya thinks he’s a bit of a hypocrite, because he knows that Hiiro himself is prone to staying up a bit too late when he’s hyper-focused on something. But Hiiro has always been better at taking care of others than taking care of himself, and it’s a sentiment that Kiriya shares, for the most part, so he tries to listen to them. 

He tries, and yet he finds it harder and harder to care about things like taking care of himself the longer that things go on. He knows that it’s worrying both of his boyfriends, and it frustrates him, because he wants to care. He wants to be able to go to bed on time, and eat proper meals without forgetting them, but so often lately he feels like his head is in a fog, and the only way to keep it clear is to keep working until he tires himself out. 

He wonders how much of it has to do with being human again, and how much of it has to do with the time that he wasn’t. 

He drifts by like that, for about three weeks before Hiiro stops him in the hallway, a stormy look upon his face, and says that they need to talk. 

Kiriya isn’t exactly surprised, but he can’t say that he was 100% expecting this either. He considers brushing Hiiro off, going back to work as though nothing had happened, but then he sees Emu down the hall, peeking out of an unused exam room with a look of worry on his face. Kiriya’s resistance crumbles in the face of him, and he follows Hiiro obediently to the room.

“Well? What’s up?” He asks, trying to be cheerful, but Hiiro’s mouth is a thin line as he shuts the door behind him. Emu sits nervously on the examination bed, opening his mouth a few times before closing it, unsure of the words to say. Luckily, Hiiro doesn’t seem to have the same problem. 

“The pharmacist called today, asking for you,” Hiiro says, and Kiriya raises his eyebrows, because what does that have to do with anything? Hiiro looks frustrated with him, and then bites his lower lip before Emu finally gets the courage to speak up. 

“They said that you haven’t picked up your prescription,” he says, and Kiriya’s eyebrows rise before things finally click into place, and he slaps one hand across his face. 

“Oh man, I forgot,” he admits, and Hiiro’s face turns stormy again. 

“You forgot your antidepressants for three weeks?” He asks, trying very hard to keep his voice calm, and Kiriya frowns at him, because he doesn’t appreciate the accusatory tone. 

“Hiiro-san,” Emu soothes, because soothing the two of them is just what Emu does. Kiriya grits his teeth, but he keeps his mouth shut, and Hiiro slowly deflates. 

“I wasn’t trying to accuse you of anything,” Hiiro says, his voice quiet, and now Kiriya feels bad, even though he also feels like he shouldn’t have to feel bad. He really doesn’t know what he’s feeling, and it only frustrates him further. “We’re just worried about you.” 

Kiriya deflates, eyeing the prescription bag that Emu holds out to him. 

“I really just forgot, honestly,” he says as he takes it, but it doesn’t alleviate the worry on their faces, so he continues. “I mean, I was taking them before… everything happened. But then I died, and then I was a bugster, and I didn’t actually need them, you know? And then when I turned human again, I just…”

He trails off, and Emu and Hiiro share a look. 

“You just forgot,” Emu says, but it’s not accusing. He’s always been better at that than Hiiro, being able to say things without making them an accusation. Kiriya loves him for it, not that he loves Hiiro any less.

“I did,” he says, and Hiiro exhales slowly as he turns and pours a glass of water for him from the room’s sink. Kiriya frowns, but he knows that this was his mistake, and he takes the cup and the bag from Emu, popping open the bottle and taking two pills into his hand. 

He pops them into his mouth and then swallows them with a gulp of water, and he doesn’t immediately feel better, but he can see that Hiiro and Emu do, and that does make him feel better in turn. He knows he’s been upsetting them with his behavior for the past three weeks, and if this helps him not to do that, then all the better for it. 

“We’re going to remind you to take them from now on,” Hiiro says, and Kiriya glances up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Clearly you’re having some difficulty adjusting after being a bugster for so long, and that’s normal. But we wouldn’t be good boyfriends if we didn’t help you out.” 

His face flushes pink when he says it, the way it always does when he talks of their relationship. And even though Kiriya still feels drained and foggy, and not quite up to his normal levels of energy, he finds that it makes him smile, and he reaches over and ruffles Hiiro’s hair. Emu smiles from his perch on the bed, and Kiriya grabs him by the wrist and pulls him over, embracing both of them into a hug that lasts maybe a few seconds longer than it strictly needs to. 

“Thank you,” he says, quietly, and Emu rubs one hand against his lower back while Hiiro leans into him, pressing his lips gently against his cheek. 

“What are boyfriends for?” he asks, and Kiriya chuckles.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't really sure which direction to go in for this exchange but you said you liked characters taking care of each other so! I also wrote a more upbeat story to counteract the depressingness of this one. :) Sorry no Taiga, I'm just super bad at writing him haha.


End file.
